Yesil Ev Hotel
is located in the heart of the Old City in Istanbul, at
the Beyazit - Sultanahmet district. Being an old wooden
house at first this mansion was transformed to a model of
a traditional building with furniture in 19th century style.
A conservatory was built in the garden, which contains a
monumental pool in pink porphyry from the mansion of the
Serasker Riza Pasha Yildiz of same period. The hotel called
Yesil Ev meaning Green House was restored carefully in 1997,
offering rather small rooms except the one and only spacious
which is called the Pasha room. It is a special class
hotel and consists of 19 rooms including 4 standard twins
and the Pasha room.
The 19 total rooms which
are furnished in the style of a 19th century winter mansion
have shower/wc, central heating, air-condition, direct dial
telephone, minibar, free tea/coffee tray and safety box.
Hair dryer can be requested at the reception. 24 hours room
service, power generator and fire alarm system are also
available. With a turkish bath and its special decoration
the Pasha Room of Yesil Ev has a world – wide reputation.
The indoor restaurant in
the lobby with its 19yy mansion style decoration and capacity
of 80 people, serves the guests during the winter time.
In the Garden full of colorful
flowers, high trees and a charming pool in pink porphyry,
the very special dishes are served to the guests in three
seasons of the year. And during the winter time the Sera
Restaurant, with the different kinds of plants and colorful
lambs in it, serves the guests. Yesil Ev Garden where the
open buffet breakfasts are served in summer has a capacity
of 200 people as Cafe & Bar and Restaurant.
Throughout all of history,
capital cities have possessed one distinguished feature
in common: Wherever a royal dynasty resides, high dignitaries
of state will chose the same vicinity for their seats of
residence, resulting in the finest architecture and the
most magnificent buildings are being erected in these cities.
The same feature is to be observed in Istanbul. The Ottoman
Sultans preffered the locality now known as Seraglio Point
, with the result that, during the period that lasted until
the middle of the 19th century, the district just beyond,
on the slopes overlooking the Marmara between Sultanahmet
and Beyazit, gradually became covered with the mansions
of the various statesmen and court dignitaries.
One of these mansions which
belonged to the Regie Nazýrý (Director of
Monopoly) Þükrü Bey was built towards to
the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th
century, this wooden mansion was subjected to a development
which was to have unfortunate consequences, not only for
the mansion itself, but for the surraunding area as well:
A prison was to be built across from the Hagia Sophia.
In the previous fifty or
sixty years the area had declined to such an extent that
when it became neccessary to built a prison. The main factor
in the choice of the location was that the site between
that particular corner and Topkapý Palace was where
the lawcourts were situated.
In Þükrü
Bey’s mansion the necessary precautions were immediately
taken against their vulgar, disagreeable neighbour. A wall
was built across the spacious garden at the back, thus protecting
the house from the inauspicious sight of the nearby prison-house.
Life went on as usual in
the mansion since this event, in 1910s, until the 1970s.
With the death of the General Director the mansion lost
its main source of revenue and the great house gradually
fell into a state of neglect and dilapidation.
In 1977 this mansion was
up for sale and was taken under control by the Turkish Touring
and Automobile Association. The old wooden building was
so far beyond repair that, with the consent of the Commission
for Ancient Monuments, it was demolished and rebuilt. The
nineteen rooms and layout were carefully preserved and the
exterior remade as an exact replica.
The furnishings have been
created in the style of a 19th century winter mansion. The
building has an absolutely unrivaled location between Hagia
Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and at the same time offers
visitors the warm, friendly atmosphere of an old Istanbul
home.
After the opening of this
unique building in March 1984 as the Yesil Ev, it very quickly
attained a world-wide reputation and was awarded in 1985
the medal for the year by “Europa Nostra”. Yesil
Ev had, indeed, introduced the concept of true comfort and
hygiene to this “derelict” district and opened
a new epoch in Turkish tourism by combining modern standards
with historical style.
